Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Valley Ranch
Medical District, a new 186-acre master-planned health and wellness epicenter,
has plans to fill a void in the historically “medically underserved” community
of East Montgomery County, officials said.

The medical
district will be constructed within the 1,400-acre master-planned community of
Valley Ranch located near the intersection of the Grand Parkway and Hwy. 59.

“As one of
the fastest-growing corridors and at a critical location, the need for new
facilities is immediate and the potential for a higher density of health care
than our plans is quite realistic,” Signorelli Company Marketing Coordinator
Alyssa McGuire said.

McGuire said
the Signorelli Company, the project’s developer, is in the process of
installing road and utility infrastructure for the development. The company
issued a request for proposals to academic and health systems in November and
plans to select Phase 1 partners over the next three months. Construction on
the district’s buildings will begin as facilities are designed and permitted.

A projected
completion date for the medical district has not been released, she said.

Additional
health care resources are needed as the population of the Lake Houston area
north of Kingwood continues to grow, said Rick Hatcher, president of the East
Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.

“The fact
that we have two major hospitals in this area and more medical options coming—with
this being another viable option—has a great impact,” Hatcher said. “More
people creates more need.”

The new
medical district will have more than 1 million square feet of health care
developments and provide care for the residents in East Montgomery County and
the Hwy. 59 corridor, who have limited options, McGuire said. It is anticipated
to offer a broad range of specialties including cardiology, orthopedics and
oncology, as well as women’s and children’s specialties, and primary care.

The medical
district could also provide an economic boost, Hatcher said.

“It will be
a great impact; anytime a big industry enters our market, every dollar is
turned over seven times,” he said. “Anytime you have facilities like that, it
provides a greater opportunity to attract new businesses.”

Compared
with a similar-sized corridor, Hwy. 59 between the Grand Parkway and Beltway 8
has two hospital systems, while I-45 has 14 hospitals between Conroe and FM
1960.

“The medical
district will have major impacts to the surrounding community from substantial
job growth to tax base supporting Montgomery County and local schools to
creating another anchor and regional draw,” McGuire said.

Monday, December 19, 2016

The United States is turning its attention to activities by foreign investors who use US trusts, limited liability entities, and other investment structures to conceal the ownership of criminal proceeds or foreign tax evasion.
For both legitimate and illegitimate reasons, investors have historically sought to shield their identities by forming certain types of US entities. The following new measures will require such entities to disclose beneficial ownership information. This information may lead to investigations and prosecutions for money laundering, domestic and international tax evasion, and other illicit financial activities.

First, in January 2016, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the Treasury Department charged with safeguarding the financial system, issued two highly publicized Geographic Targeting Orders (GTOs) to combat illicit activity in the Miami-Dade County and Manhattan real estate markets. These GTOs require certain US title insurance companies to identify beneficial owners of entities for all-cash real estate purchase in Miami when the purchase price exceeds $1 million, and in Manhattan when the purchase prices exceeds $3 million. The government announced this as a pilot program to gain insight into the use of high-end real estate investments to conceal assets. In July 2016, FinCEN extended the time period for the original GTOs, and extended the scope to include real estate transactions above certain dollar thresholds in all five boroughs of New York City; in Broward and Palm Beach counties; in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego, California; and in San Antonio, Texas.

Second, FinCEN finalized new rules, known as the customer due diligence (CDD) rules, that require covered financial institutions, which include banks, brokers, and mutual funds, to obtain information concerning the beneficial owners of accounts held by entities. Under the CDD rules, these financial institutions are required to identify natural persons who own 25 percent or more of an entity that owns a US financial account or who have "significant responsibility" to control such an entity.

Third, in May 2016, the Treasury Department proposed regulations that, if promulgated, would impose new disclosure obligations on single-member limited liability companies (LLCs) owned by foreign persons, a type of entity that historically has been largely invisible to the government for reporting requirements. Under the proposed regulations, a single-member LLC would be required to identify its beneficial owner to the Internal Revenue Service annually on IRS Form 5472. This entity would also be required to report each related party with which it had a "reportable transaction," which is defined broadly to include almost every type of business transaction.

Notably, the US government may seek to bring money laundering charges for activity in the US that furthers foreign tax evasion.
In Pasquantino v. United States, 544 U.S. 349 (2005), the Supreme Court upheld convictions under the wire fraud statute for carrying out a scheme in the US to evade Canadian taxes. The same reasoning may support a money laundering charge. While prosecutions under Pasquantino have been infrequent, current trends in government investigations indicate that the government may turn to this prosecutorial tool going forward.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Dallas is about to have America's largest urban nature park -- surprised?

Dallas is about to become known as one of America's
greenest cities, with America's largest urban nature park, and almost no
one knows about it.

A number of nature-oriented projects still
have to be completed before the pieces of the puzzle will fit together.
This is happening with little public awareness because the projects are
being conducted independently, managed by different parts of the
government whose communications with each other are usually sparse.

The
location of all this is in the area the city calls the Trinity River
Corridor. The important piece of this vast watershed extends from where
the main stem of the Trinity River starts, just upstream from the
Mockingbird-Westmoreland bridge, and goes all the way down to where the
river crosses Interstate 20 at Dallas' southern city limit.

Three
large but disconnected projects are happening at different parts of
this river corridor. When they are completed, and that should be soon,
Dallas is likely to join Portland, Austin and other nature-oriented
cities as The-Place-to-Live-if-You-Like-Nature. Here is a sneak preview of this Nature District:

* Birds/Horses/Golf -- In a 1,000-acre section of the Great Trinity
Forest, accessed by I-45 and Loop 12, only a 10-minute drive from
downtown Dallas, three significant projects have been completed in the
last eight years. The Trinity River Audubon
Center opened in 2008 as a nature center for the forest and an
education center that teaches environmental science to 25,000 kids a
year. In 2015, the Texas Horse Park opened, with a rodeo arena as big as
Mesquite's and plans to host national equestrian events. This fall, the
Trinity Forest Golf Club opened, and will be the new home of the
AT&T Byron Nelson tournament beginning in May 2018.

* Lakes
-- Over 10 years ago, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began a project
to help the floodwaters of the Trinity River move more efficiently
downstream from the downtown Dallas area. They did this by clearing some
clusters of trees in that area and installing a series of seven or
eight lakes that they like to call "wetlands." This Trinity Lakes area
is about the size of White Rock Lake, with a shoreline that rivals that
huge lake. The corps is currently building a Katy Trail-style bike path
covering most of the distance from Downtown Dallas to the horse
park/golf course/Audubon Center area about 10 miles away. That trail is
mostly complete and should be finished by next summer at the current
pace.
* Trinity Park -- Because of the years of hard work
by Trinity Trust and the generosity of the Harold Simmons family,
Dallas' between-the-levees park, called Harold Simmons Park, is now
closer to being funded, with a $50 million commitment from the Simmons
family, plus $30 million from an earlier bond program. Among its many
important aspects is that it will serve as a launch-point to the Nature
District that will extend through the Trinity Lakes area and horse
park/golf course/Audubon area all the way to the southern end of the
Great Trinity Forest almost 20 river-miles away.
The extent of
this Nature District is hard to comprehend. Counting the 1,000 acres of
the existing developed areas, 2,000 acres between the levees and 7,000
acres of the Great Trinity Forest, the 10,000 acres is over 10 times the
size of New York's Central Park.

What is missing thus far is a
recognition by the city of how these projects are connected, and a
packaging of the nature park for what it will likely be -- the largest
urban nature park in America. In 2015, a group of conservation-minded
business leaders formed the nonprofit Trinity Recreation Conservancy to
help the city with this task. We encourage the city to allow us to help.

World’s Biggest Real Estate Frenzy Is Coming to a City Near You

If they were anywhere else in Beijing, the five young women in cowboy hats
and matching red, white, and blue costumes would look wildly out of
place.But here at the city’s biggest international property fair
-- a frenetic gathering of brokers, developers and other real estate
professionals all jockeying for the attention of Chinese buyers -- the
quintet of wannabe Texans fits right in. As they promote Houston
townhouses (“Yours for as little as $350,000!”), a Portugal contingent
touts its Golden Visa program and the Australian delegation lures
passersby with stuffed kangaroos.

Welcome to ground zero for the
world’s largest cross-border residential property boom. Motivated by a
weakening yuan, surging domestic housing costs and the desire to secure
offshore footholds, Chinese citizens are snapping up overseas homes at
an accelerating pace. They’re also venturing further afield than ever
before, spreading beyond the likes of Sydney and Vancouver to
lower-priced markets including Houston, Thailand’s Pattaya Beach and
Malaysia’s Johor Bahru.
The
buying spree has defied Chinese government efforts to restrict capital
outflows and shows little sign of slowing after an estimated $15 billion
of overseas real estate purchases in the first half. For cities in the
cross-hairs, the challenge is to balance the economic benefits of
Chinese demand against the risk that rising home prices spur a public
backlash.
“The Chinese have managed to accumulate very large
amounts of wealth, and the opportunities to deploy that capital in their
own market are somewhat restricted,” said Richard Barkham, the
London-based chief global economist at CBRE Group Inc., the world’s
largest commercial property brokerage. “China has more than a billion
people. Personally, I think we have just seen a trickle.”

While
a dearth of government statistics makes it difficult to gain a
comprehensive view of cross-border real estate investments, most
industry projections point to a surge in Chinese purchases. Ping An
Haofang, an online real estate platform owned by China’s second-largest
insurer, says its $15 billion first-half estimate, derived from market
data, nearly matches the figure for all of 2015.
Fang Holdings
Ltd., the country’s most popular property website, predicts overseas
buying on its system will increase 130 percent this year, while
transactions through September at Shenzhen World Union Properties
Consultancy Inc., China’s largest broker for new-home sales, were
already 50 percent above last year’s level. The country overtook Canada
as the largest source of residential purchases in America last year
after an estimated $93 billion of buying from 2010 to 2015, according to
a May report by the Asia Society and Rosen Consulting Group.
It
adds up to the world’s biggest-ever wave of overseas residential
property investment, according to Susan Wachter, a professor at the
University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School who specializes in real
estate markets. While Japan had a similar boom in the 1980s, it was
mainly focused on commercial buildings,s Wachter said.

Today’s
Chinese buyers have a long list of reasons to flock overseas. The
yuan’s slump is eroding their purchasing power, while returns on local
financial assets -- including stocks, bonds and wealth-management
products -- are shrinking as the $11 trillion economy slows. The
Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.1 percent on Tuesday and a gauge of
the nation’s property stocks declined 0.3 percent.
Chinese real
estate, meanwhile, has grown increasingly out of reach after a
speculative boom sent domestic home prices to all-time highs.
Residential property values in Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai all jumped
more than 30 percent in the year through September, according to the
National Bureau of Statistics.

“Properties
in Shanghai are ridiculously expensive,” Chen Feng, 38, said as he
evaluated prospects at a property fair in Shanghai in September, lured
by television commercials for the event the night before. “With the
amount of money it takes to buy a small apartment here, I can buy a
building of apartments in many places in the world.”
That line of
reasoning is nothing new, of course. Sydney, Vancouver, Hong Kong,
London and a handful of other cities have long been popular destinations
for Chinese buyers.
The difference now is that those traditional
hotspots are starting to lose their appeal, due to soaring prices and
new measures to deter an influx of overseas money. In Hong Kong, the
government enacted a 30 percent tax on foreign property owners this
month after Chinese demand pushed home values toward record highs.
The
risk of similar measures in other cities can’t be ruled out as
politicians including Donald Trump, the U.S. president-elect, tap into
local discontent over rising living costs, according to CBRE Group’s
Barkham.

Ocean Views

Chinese buyers have responded by
branching out to cheaper cities. In the U.S., they’re increasingly
searching for properties in Houston, Orlando and Seattle, which
displaced San Francisco in the first quarter as the third-most viewed
U.S. market on Juwai.com, a Chinese search engine for offshore real
estate.
At the national level, countries in Southeast Asia have
grown more popular. Juwai.com’s queries on Thailand are surging at a 72
percent annual rate, helping it surpass Britain as one of the top five
most-targeted destinations worldwide earlier this year.
In Pattaya
Beach, Chinese investors have snapped up 20 percent of the luxury
condos on offer from Kingdom Property Co. over the past year. The
properties offer Gulf of Thailand views for as little as $120,000, or
less than a quarter of what buyers would pay for a typical apartment in
central Shanghai, according to Han Bing, a 30-year-old anchor in Chinese
television shows who doubles as a sales agent for the Bangkok-based
developer.
“It’s a cool bargain for a retirement plan,” Han said.

Capital Controls

In
the Malaysian state of Johor, across the Northern border of Singapore,
major Chinese builders including Country Garden Holdings Co., Greenland
Holdings Corp. and Guangzhou R&F Properties Co. are all developing
new projects. Country Garden agents handed out fliers for the firm’s $37
billion Forest City development at the Beijing property fair in
September, advertising permanent property rights, zero inheritance
taxes, long-term residence visas and high-quality hospitals.

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One
challenge for Chinese investors is getting money out of a country that
caps individuals’ foreign-currency purchases at $50,000 a year. While
that limit hasn’t always been strictly enforced, the yuan’s slump is
prompting policy makers to clamp down. This year, they’ve banned the use
of friends’ currency quotas, curbed on the cross-border activities of
underground banks and asked lenders to reduce foreign-exchange sales.Still,
alternative routes abound. Many business owners finance their homes
through offshore trading companies, while some Chinese developers allow
clients to pay for overseas units in yuan. Foreign-currency mortgages
also play a role, helping to fund more than 80 percent of China’s
international property purchases, according to an estimate by Fang
Holdings based on user searches and surveys.

Planning Ahead

“Where
there’s a will, there’s a way,” said David Ley, a professor at the
University of British Columbia who wrote a book on the flood of wealthy
migrants from east Asia in the 1980s and 1990s.
This year’s
purchases could be just the tip of the iceberg. Chinese holdings of
global real estate, including commercial properties, will probably swell
to $220 billion by 2020 from $80 billion in 2015, according to
Juwai.com.
As the first generation born after China’s opening in
the late 1970s approaches middle age, many of them want an overseas base
for family members to travel, study and work. Chinese parents with
children at foreign schools have been a major source of demand,
accounting for an estimated 45 percent of cross-border buying, according
to Fang Holdings.
Zha Liangliang, a 31-year-old owner of
commercial wheat farms in China’s eastern Jiangsu province, said he
purchased a $587,000 apartment in Sydney in August and plans to add five
more before sending his children to high school in Australia. He’s
flying to the country this month to view homes and farmland, hoping to
buy before the yuan weakens any further.
For some investors, it’s
never too early to pull the trigger. Richard Baumert, a partner at
Millennium Partners Boston, tells the story of a 33-year-old Chinese man
who purchased a luxury home for his future children in August,
convinced they’re destined to attend one of the city’s prestigious
universities.
The buyer shelled out $2.4 million for the property,
Baumert said, unfazed by the fact that he’s single and it could be two
decades before he has kids old enough for college.

Saturday, August 6, 2016

DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS | FRIDAY, JULY 22, 2016
Economists are having a tough time figuring out what housing market moves baby boomers will make next. Americans over the age of 55 are veering from previous generations, opting not to retire but instead launching second or even third careers. They are shunning the traditional patterns of retirement and that could have a big impact on their housing choices, according to Freddie Mac’s latest Insight report focusing on the baby boomer generation.

Baby boomers are a critical piece to the housing market puzzle. Americans over the age of 55 make up a quarter of the population and control about two-thirds of the single-family home equity in the nation. Sixty-five-year olds who, on average purchased a home 35 years ago now tend to have a home value that is likely 3.7 times what they purchased it for.

Nearly a quarter of baby boomers recently surveyed by Freddie Mac say they need major renovations in their current home in order to stay there as they age. Many say they may face financial constraints to take on those remodels. For others who do plan to age in place, they may be underestimating the extent of the financial costs of outfitting their home with features so they can do so, says Sean Becketti, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.

As such, about 18 million home owners over the age of 55 may be shopping for another house in the next few years, according to the Insights Report.

The main reasons to move aren’t due to downsizing either. Instead, the survey showed the key influences making these generations move are: Affordability of the community, the need for retirement amenities, and a home with less maintenance.

Bottom line, the authors note, the 55-plus population likely is to be an active part of the housing economy for years to come still.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

I'm still waiting to see any improvement in the traffic situation in Houston. It has become abundantly clear that city hall is clueless on how to deal with the ever growing traffic congestion problem. Metro is inept beyond measure. I can't think of a program they implemented in the last 30 years that reduced traffic by any measure - much less made getting around the city any easier. Time to hold politicians accountable and so let us look back to what Mayor Turner had to say on this matter.

========================================================

Testifying at TX Transportation Comm

Jay Blazek Crossley, Jan 28, 16.

Newly elected Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner traveled to Austin to deliver a rousing speech to the Texas Transportation Commission (TTC) today saying that the transportation strategies of the past are not sufficient to meet today’s needs. The TTC plans to allocate $1.3 billion to road expansion projects today, the first major spending of Prop 7 funds.

He said that an approach that focuses on single occupant vehicle road expansion is actually exacerbating our congestion problems in Houston, that “we need a paradigm shift,” and that “congestion has not been alleviated.”

He requested that the TTC consider three points:
1. We need a paradigm shift in prioritizing mobility services that prioritize reducing single occupant vehicle trips.
2. We must invest more in our urban cores.
3. We need TXDOT to collaborate with our cities to find comprehensive solutions and ensure that the last mile infrastructure receives the same attention as the freeways.

Mayor Turner presented the work of TXDOT - Houston District staff on the proposals for the I-45 Corridor in Houston as a good example of the type of collaboration he believes is necessary.

HOUSTON - It was a super morning start Wednesday at William P. Hobby Airport.

The third of four countdown clocks to Super Bowl LI was unveiled at the airport.

It is the second clock to go at an area airport. If you remember, a clock was unveiled at George Bush Intercontinental Airport back in February.The clock is the located on the central concourse ticketing level near the TSA checkpoint.

Saturday, March 5, 2016

The jobs report for February showed a strong bounce back from a soft January with upward revisions to prior months. In a separate report last week weak fourth quarter GDP growth was revised up slightly, and inflation has moved closer to the Fed’s 2% target in each of the last three months. Would an increase in the federal funds rate at the upcoming March Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting be sheer madness? Investors seem to think so.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported payroll employment expanded by 242 thousand in February and added a total of 30 thousand to the December and January counts. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.9% with large gains in both the labor force (555 thousand) and the number of employed persons (530 thousand). The labor force participation rate has gained 0.5 percentage point in recent months, reaching 62.9%, still low but erasing declines in 2015.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) revised fourth quarter GDP growth up from 0.7% to 1.0%. In contrast to the slowdown in GDP growth, the BEA reported that inflation as measured by the price index for personal consumption expenditures, has accelerated. After hovering at 1.3% for most of 2015 the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation has climbed to 1.7% over the last three months.

Weak fourth quarter economic growth, soft January employment numbers and anxiety about the domestic effects of declines in economies and financial markets abroad have raised doubts about the timing of the Fed’s next interest rate increase. After the initial increase in December, the March meeting was the favorite among analysts. In the wake of recent economic data investors betting on the timing of the next hike have virtually taken the March meeting off the table (bets).

It will be interesting to see if today’s strong labor market report improves the odds of a March move among investors in the coming two weeks before the FOMC meeting. It will be interesting to see if the bets payoff.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Building permits awarded in January by the city of Houston fell 31 percent, with declines in both commercial and residential sectors, according to a report from the Greater Houston Partnership based on city permit data.

January saw $400 million worth of permit activity compared with $580 million last year, according to the report. The 12-month total fell 7.3 percent to $8 billion at the end of January.

Multifamily building permits saw the steepest drop, declining 94 percent to $3 million. The slowdown was expected as there are more units under construction than there likely will be demand for.

Across the area, there are close to 30,000 apartment units under construction, but only 4,380 are needed based on job projections, the partnership said. As a rule of thumb, every five new jobs creates demand for one apartment, and the partnership's 2016 employment forecast is for 21,900 new jobs.

Houston's downtown is getting a makeover for Super Bowl LI in 2017. Look for sidewalk dining, landscaping and new stages.

So many bulldozers and cranes and jackhammers and orange cones are swarming downtown Houston, it looks like a "Bob the Builder" cartoon in real life. Or any highway in Houston.

Earlier this week, I took a walk around - with a few detours here and there - all the construction going on outside the George R. Brown Convention Center, getting our city ready for the 2017 Super Bowl.

The 1,000-room Marriott Marquis Houston hotel opens in October, a 100,000-square-foot pedestrian zone with outdoor cafes is planned in front of the convention center, retail stores and 15 restaurants are being built along Avenida De Las Americas, and space has been cleared for enormous sculptures.

Things to do in downtown Houston after dark!

It's called "Houston First Corp.'s Convention District Improvement Plan." It's costing $240 million, funded by a combination of hotel occupancy tax, parking revenue and money from venues. Houstonians are not being hit up for a dime. Fingers crossed on that.

It looks like a total makeover of the "Convention District," running from Toyota Center to Minute Maid Park, from the GRB to Caroline - more than 20 blocks long.

Maybe we shouldn't get too excited, though. I remember when we had the Super Bowl in 2004. Downtown was jumping with clubs and restaurants and outdoor stages. People got dressed up to go out. And downtown was only going to get busier and more robust. There were big plans …

Then the Super Bowl left, and most of those restaurants and clubs pulled up stakes or couldn't make it. Downtown became a ghost town after dark again.

I asked Peter McStravick, chief development officer, and Holly Clapham, chief marketing officer for the Houston First Corp., how we can be sure that downtown's rebirth 2.0 won't disappear after our next Super Bowl - like it did after our last Super Bowl.

"This project is based on five years of historical information and guidance from several studies," McStravick said. "Based on that information, the city approved the Downtown Living Initiative to boost new residential development. There are 3,000 units currently under construction, plus the existing units. So we will have a critical mass that will support new retail."

"New development along Avenida De Las Americas includes businesses that will be supported by people visiting Discovery Green, Minute Maid Park, Toyota Center, BBVA Compass Stadium and additional conventions filling up the Marriott Marquis and existing hotels," he said. "There will be more pedestrian traffic generated by the new east/west light rail line. So, yes, these projects are permanent and sustainable."

Clapham put it more succinctly: "We know what we're doing this time."

In 2004, the Houston Texans and NRG Stadium were relatively new. There was only one light rail line, also new. It was a work in progress.

The 2004 Super Bowl still was a memorable success. Record numbers attended downtown events. New England beat Carolina in a thriller, 32-29. At the time, it was the most-watched Super Bowl ever. Some sportswriters called it the "greatest Super Bowl of all time." You might recall that the halftime show suffered an unintended "wardrobe malfunction." Right, unintended.

Since then, the Houston booster club has been "under new management," and this crowd is super eager to bring more Super Bowls, more NCAA Final Fours, more All-Star Baseball games, more festivals and conventions, more Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift concerts and help the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo grow even bigger. Houston recently sent word to World Wrestling Entertainment - we want another WrestleMania.

"We did study a study of what happened in 2004," Clapham said. "One of the primary reasons that businesses dried up was lack of a residential base and active sidewalks. We have already experienced the effect of new development. We ended 2015 with 762,000 hotel rooms booked in advance for 2016 and 2017. That's a record for the city, and 29 percent over 2014. We have 3,000 apartment units being built."

When all of the construction is done, target October, Houston will have a true downtown for people to gather in on New Year's Eve. There will be a sports bar at street level of the Marriott, partnered with a "Houston sports legend." I couldn't get anybody to name a name … but I'm guessing it's a former Astro who's in the Hall of Fame. You have two choices. By next year, maybe three. (Good luck, Jeff Bagwell.)

Currently, there are 5,000 hotel rooms in downtown. By Super Bowl 2017, there will be 8,000 rooms.

The Houston First Corp. is negotiating with restaurants that want in along the Avenida. The new Pappasitos on the ground level of the Hilton Americas-Houston is absolutely killing it; it's packed.

"As the culinary and cultural capital of the South, local flavor and local chefs are a focus and will definitely be included in the mix," Clapham said.

I did mention that she's the downtown's chief marketing officer, right?

An enormous (25-foot-by 35-foot-high) mobile sculpture called "Wings Over Water" will hover above the Fountain of the Americas on the south side of the pedestrian concourse. That will be a terrific meet-up place "if any of us gets lost."

The pedestrian zone will be brightly lighted, encouraging late-night strolls. No spooky danger corners or creepy alleys. There will be large open areas for festivals and entertainment.

"I see this district as the epicenter of major-league entertainment for Houston," Clapham said. "It's bookended with Minute Maid Park and Toyota Center. BBVA Compass Stadium is just blocks away. Discovery Green is thriving. Light rail connects the convention district to our theater and historic districts, the Museum District, Texas Medical Center and NRG Park. It's quite a concentration of attractions."